EDITORIAL - New marching orders

With the midterm elections just 14 months away, President Aquino ordered the Philippine National Police the other day to speed up the dismantling of private armies nationwide. Every president before him issued similar orders before every electoral exercise. What the nation got was more election-related violence, the worst of which was the massacre in Maguindanao in 2009.

One problem in implementing the order is that PNP members themselves often form part of politicians’ private armies. They are augmented by some state-funded militias – the so-called force multipliers that President Aquino himself and his security officials have been reluctant to dismantle. With the PNP and the Armed Forces of the Philippines strapped for funds, the militias – when they perform as intended – augment defense and law enforcement capability on the cheap.

Another problem is that there are too many political kingpins with private armies who remain untouchable, with the government in Manila looking the other way in the name of political expediency. Exempt one politician from dismantling his private army and a horde of others will demand the same privilege.

A third problem is that the inability of the government to neutralize threat groups and criminal gangs has long given politicians, businessmen and other civilians an excuse to arm themselves and, if they can afford it, maintain their own armed security contingents. This in turn has allowed politicians to deploy their armies against rivals during elections. Local elections have always been particularly violent, with murder seen as the ultimate weapon to ensure election victory.

This was what happened in Maguindanao, with members of the Ampatuan clan now on trial for the gruesome murder of 57 people in a convoy that included over 30 media workers. The principal targets were on their way to file the certificate of candidacy of a distant relative who dared challenge the Ampatuan patriarch.

Today, a year before yet another election, private armed groups still roam Maguindanao and the rest of the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao. Security officials have reported that as of June last year, 28 private armies had been dismantled nationwide, with 86 more to be neutralized. Those weary of violence can only hope that this time, the marching orders to dismantle the private armies will be carried out with decisiveness.